The key responsibility of an interim government is to steer the country toward democratic transition by ensuring a genuinely fair election. This requires putting the right reforms in place. With the election only months away, the government should be fully focused on preparing for a credible vote. That means stabilizing law and order and rebuilding people’s sense of security. Yet, in these crucial areas, the government shows little attention or initiative.
Instead of focusing on election-related responsibilities, the government is showing the most interest in long-term agreements—matters that fall outside its mandate. It is rushing into these deals with clear forcefulness, ignoring citizens, experts, and national interests, and pushing them through by instilling fear.
An unelected, temporary government has no authority to enter into such long-term agreements. These require an elected government. Even an elected government cannot do this unilaterally—such agreements should be tabled in parliament, debated, and made publicly known. With elections just months away, why is the government so eager to sign these deals now? If a long-term agreement on port management is indeed for the country’s benefit, why the secrecy, lack of transparency, and undue haste?
The government’s excessive interest in these agreements raises serious doubts. It appears that some lobbyists of foreign companies are influencing government actions—pushing for opaque, secretive deals to protect foreign corporate interests. These long-term agreements are being structured in ways that future governments will find difficult to reverse. Yet the burden of such deals will fall on the people of Bangladesh for many years.
The expectations created through the popular uprising—of transparency and rule-based governance—are being betrayed. Political parties that have been in dialogue with the government must also take responsibility for remaining silent about these activities that undermine national interest.
We have often seen the same justification repeated before such deals: that the foreign company involved is one of the best in the world. People are made to believe that we are incapable, that we cannot do anything ourselves, that only foreigners can deliver, that corruption will occur if we handle things, but not if they do.
This inferiority complex is fostered deliberately to argue in favor of giving foreign companies special advantages. Their local beneficiaries actively advertise on their behalf. But what guarantees that foreigners will not engage in corruption? Does corruption not occur internationally? Raising tariffs even before the agreement is finalized is itself a form of corruption.
Foreign companies that enjoy global recognition did not emerge by chance. They grew through processes rooted in national capacity. Bangladesh, too, must stand on its own capabilities. That requires investing in institutional competence. A nation stands strong when it builds its own strengths. This government, however, is steering the country in the opposite direction, putting it at risk.
Author: Economist
Courtesy:Prothom Alo
